Rise of Allies (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 4) (23 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Dracosaurus Silvanus

“O
oo-weee! Look at ’em down there. Sunnin’ like a bunch o’ gators,” Tex whispered as they all peered down from the rocky lookout point.

Jake’s heart pounded as he, too, stared, motionless and sweating from his hike. Halfway down the mountain, a rocky outcrop overlooked a secluded bend in the peaceful river that wound through the valley.

On the flat rocks beside the water, he beheld the magnificent but terrifying sight of a dozen dinosaur-like dragons lounging in the sunshine, relics of primordial history.

The visitors crouched down behind the boulders, staring at them.

“Whatever we gotta do, let’s try not to wake ’em up from their siesta.”

“Agreed,” Dr. Plantagenet murmured.

“Incredible, aren’t they?” Derek glanced at Jake, grinning. He had always been an ardent dragon enthusiast.

Jake nodded in reply, hoping that his dread of the giant reptiles didn’t show on his face. Then he looked again at the clan of beasts below.

The dracosaurs were a dark olive-greenish color for the most part. Some had a dappling of brown or gray spots along their backs—camouflage, no doubt, to help them blend into the forest better.

All sported nubby horns on their heads and twitchy, stand-up ears. They had yellow eyes and sinister large fangs. The stumpy, vestigial wings on their backs, however, lent them a comical air at odds with their wicked crocodile smiles. The dracosaurs were a non-flying species of proto-dragon. The wings, Dr. Plantagenet had explained, were only used to help them with balance, for they were swift runners and long leapers.

Jake was glad to see they were nowhere near as large or terrifying as Old Smokey, the gigantic, solitary, treasure-hording black dragon Jake had seen in Giant Land. The largest dracosaur, by contrast, was about the size of a draft horse, a bit taller at the withers than the top of Jake’s head.

Aye,
he told himself in relief,
these beasties aren’t very scary at all.

Of course, it wasn’t nighttime yet, when the dracosaurs hunted in packs…

But for now, they were placid.

Jake pulled Archie’s subcompact camera out of his waistcoat and started taking pictures for his friends, as promised.

By the light of the afternoon sun, the dragons were clearly off-duty from terrorizing the forest animals. A few of the dragons slept contentedly, flopped down on their bellies on the flat, sun-warmed stone, twitching away an insect now and then with a flick of a too-small wing.

Some lay on their backs like huge, dozing dogs, legs sprawled, stubby forearms in the air, their stumpy wings spread out beneath them. One let its tail trail lazily in the water while it gnawed its front claws, sharpening them. Another had curled up like a sleeping cat, puffs of smoke rising from its nostrils with every snore.

Jake smiled to see a baby one the size of a Great Dane splash into the water and catch a fish, swallowing it whole in one gulp.

But one dracosaur had separated itself from this idyllic group, taking shelter in a large clump of underbrush. From inside the bushes came a miserable groan.

“I think that’s your patient,” Derek whispered to the Green Man.

The baby dragon in the river, concerned about its relative’s sorrowful moan, bounded over to the one hiding in the bushes.

It made a funny little sound and nosed the edge of the underbrush, as if to say,
Are you all right in there?

But the dracosaur in the bushes was in no mood for curious youngsters or for sympathy. It thrust its head out of the bushes and roared, snapping its fangs to scare the little one away.

The baby screeched and ran to the smoke-snoring dragon—apparently its mother—and curled down beside her, still cowering.

“I see what you mean about the pox making them grumpy,” Maddox remarked.

“She’s a feisty one, all right,” Tex drawled.

Dr. Plantagenet nodded. “Definitely our patient. Did you notice the patch of orange scales on her cheek?”

“How can you tell it’s a she?” Jake asked.

“The females have the spots. Males have a row of blunt dorsal spikes from the top of the head to the tip of the tail, like that one over there. I didn’t see any spikes on our unhappy friend. It’s just as well she’s telling the others to leave her alone,” he added. “That way, they might not catch it. Still, we’ll quarantine her for a few days just to make sure the others stay healthy.”

“And how are we going to do that, exactly?” Maddox inquired with a skeptical look.

Dr. Plantagenet studied the dragons’ immediate territory. “They’ll panic if we put her too far away from them. They are group animals, after all. If we can just herd her over into that second basking area… You see those flat rocks farther down the river?”

“
Herd
her? Sounds like an excellent way to get eaten,” Jake muttered.

The Green Man ignored him. “That should keep her away from the others and still give her access to the river for drinking water and fish to eat. The trick is convincing her to go there so we can set up a barrier between her and the others.”

“Well,”
Tex said slowly, scratching his chin, “I can lasso the ol’ gal. Git her movin’ in the right direction.”

Derek nodded. “I’ll help you. Once we get her into the quarantine area, Munroe can keep her distracted. I’ll calm her down with an old trick I know that works on all sorts of reptiles, then Dr. Plantagenet can give her the medicine.”

“What sort of trick?” Jake asked, furrowing his brow.

“There’s a simple way to activate a natural response in lizards that puts them into a trance. You’ll see. I could explain it, but you won’t believe it until you see it with your eyes, anyway.”

He tilted his head curiously.
How bizarre.

“Once she’s out, you’ll have about half an hour to administer the medicine,” Derek told the doctor.

“Please don’t tell me you have to give that thing a shot?” Jake said.

“Fortunately, no,” the Green Man said with a slight shudder. The thought alone made him look like he might go into tree mode again, but he shook it off with a will. “It’s a topical ointment. A five-percent carbolic acid solution, mixed with a little powdered calendula—an excellent antiseptic herb. I’ll have to spray the medicine on all her effected scales with this.”

He reached into the rope-sack and pulled out a strange contraption that looked like an oversized plant mister. It had a copper nozzle and pump fixed atop a thick glass jar. The medicine was inside. The sprayer sat in a leather holder with a sturdy strap, which Dr. Plantagenet put over his shoulder.

“What can I do to help?” Maddox asked.

“You boys will be in charge of setting up the barrier behind the dragon once we’ve moved her into the quarantine spot. Find two good strong trees to tie the rope netting to. That’s what I brought this for.”

Dr. Plantagenet removed the last few items from the sack, then he untied a couple of key knots in the rope netting. Once they were freed, he showed them how it could be unrolled like a very large, sturdy swath of fisherman’s net, perfectly suitable for using as a barrier.

“That’s clever,” Jake said.

“Are you sure this rope is strong enough to hold back a dragon?” Maddox asked.

“Can’t you smell it? I soaked it overnight in stinkberry juice, same as our bracelets. An old trick from medieval days. Besides, I don’t think the others will really want to go near her with her acting so hostile. They can usually tell when something’s wrong with one of their own.”

“Now, listen up, you young’uns.” Tex tipped his hat back and stared sternly at Jake and Maddox. “When you boys go down there, you keep your shields in hand in case one of Miss Grumpy’s cousins takes an interest.”

“Yes, sir,” said Maddox, but Jake was only just absorbing the fact that the adults actually wanted him to go down there.

Near the dragons.

“Um, I’d like to live to see my fourteenth birthday,” he said gingerly.

“Ah, they won’t bother you. You can see how inactive they are in the daytime,” Derek said. “They feed at night.”

“But you said they’re very territorial.”

“We’re not dragons,” Derek said. “Besides, these fellows are pretty well used to people from the Order coming through.”

The Green Man nodded thoughtfully. “I daresay they can probably sense we’re here to help their ailing pack member. Even I will admit that dragons do seem to have an ancient wisdom all their own.”

“When they’re not biting your legs off,” Jake said under his breath.

“I can put up the barrier myself if you’re afraid,” Maddox offered.

Jake scowled at him, cheeks flushing. “I’m not
scared
. I was only…joking.”

Derek smiled and looked away.

“If anyone’s gonna get eaten, it’s gonna be me,” Tex declared as he stood up. “In which case, she better like spicy foods ’cause I take Tabasco sauce in my coffee.”

“Yee-haw,” Jake encouraged him, ignoring Maddox.

Tex rumpled his hair in reply.

“Be careful, Munroe,” Derek advised. “Don’t do anything crazy. Like the boy said, you’re our ride home.”

“Don’t do anything crazy, he says!” The cowboy scoffed. “I’m about to lasso a danged dragon here! Shoot. You just back me up quick with that weird lizard trick o’ your’n.”

“Absolutely.”

Tex took a deep breath, pulled his hat down lower over his narrowed eyes. He eased the loop of rope off his belt and sneaked down off the ledge.

“He’s insane,” Jake whispered.

“That’s a Lightrider for you,” Dr. Plantagenet remarked as they all looked on.

Derek took off his coat while he waited, and the boys picked up their shields. Maddox took the bundle of rope netting with a nod to Jake; their task would require them to work together. Dr. Plantagenet pumped the nozzle of his medicine sprayer to make sure that it, too, was ready to go when the moment came.

Below, Tex crept down the slope as silent as a sidewinder snake. Alligator boots planted firmly in the dust, step by step, he cleared the area where the other dragons were relaxing and started closing in on the underbrush.

He shifted the rope in his hands, then started twirling the knotted loop in his right.

They heard him let out a low whistle. “Come on outta thar, lil lady.” He kicked the edge of the underbrush, startling the grumpy dragon.

It rose upright on its hind legs out of the thorns and shrubberies and promptly roared at him.

Jake stared, riveted, in disbelief as Tex threw the rope.

It landed across the dragon’s snout.

One blast of fiery breath would have burnt the rope to cinders, but Tex tugged and whipped it somehow, snapping the dragon’s mouth shut.

The tall, scaly beast blinked, looking more astonished than even Jake was.

Then three things happened all at once: The dragon turned tail and fled toward the basking area; Tex held onto the rope with a wild “
Yee-haw!
”; and Derek leaped off the ledge and chased after them.

As he ran past, all the other dragons looked on with lazy curiosity.

Jake’s heart thumped in his chest.

“Let’s go,” Dr. Plantagenet whispered. He and the boys hurried down the slope, praying none of the other dragons decided they were in the mood for lunch.

Thankfully, they cleared the main area without incident. As they rushed past, the dracosaurs glanced over, but only the baby had the energy to come bounding after them to find out what they were up to.

“What about these two trees here?” Maddox asked quickly, pointing. “Do they look strong enough?”

The Green Man nodded. “Put up the netting and then come round on this side of it, please!”